This page provides you with information on how to find vital statistic information for individuals who were born, lived and/or died in Portugal.
As you search for your Portuguese relatives, please keep in mind:
The register of baptisms and marriages became compulsory in 1563, and death registrations in 1614. Portuguese churches kept records of baptisms (baptismos), marriages (casamentos), and deaths (obitos). Records from the 1800s are particularly complete and include many details. Record books with no entries more recent than 90 years ago will generally be in district archives. Church records were seized by the Portuguese government in 1910 and many church records today are included with civil ones at the district archives and the national archive (Torre do Tombo).
Please note that the records will be in Portuguese and as of the time this guide was created, translations were not available on any of the commonly used websites.
This is a quick guide to how to get to the Azorean vital records you may be interested in: